The 2012 Summer Adventures of Marcella Baiz

I went to México this summer to do field work with two closely related howler monkey species (Alouatta palliata and A. pigra) that are hybridizing in the state of Tabasco.

Range of Alouatta palliata and A. pigra in Central America and some of the sampling locations we visited (in red).

During the first part of the trip, I spent time in the states of Veracruz and Tabasco with my advisor, Liliana Cortés Ortiz collecting samples (blood, fecal, hair) from which we will be extracting DNA. I will be using many of these samples for my thesis project, which investigates genetic relatedness among intragroup adult females of both species. 

Collecting samples and taking morphometric data from an adult A. palliata individual

I also assisted in data collection for Lucy Ho’s dissertation project. She is a Ph.D. student in the UM department of Psychology. Lucy is interested in female howler monkey social behavior, more specifically, the effect of hybridization on female-female social interactions. So, we spent a lot of time staring up trees recording the monkey’s behaviors and movements.

Lucy trying to locate an A. pigra study group in Macuspana

To end, here are some of my favorite moments in snapshots!